PIETER VERMEERSCH
2018-08-27Beyond any sense of fading light or imminent sunrise, paintings by Belgian artist Pieter Vermeersch veer away from seeing the world in simple terms. Instead, they abstract its image through materiality, picturing the world as a series of carefully controlled encounters. Their restlessness and curiosity seek out the unexpected and unknown. Towards the end of Eric Rohmer’s film Le Rayon Vert (1986), a restless Delphine (Marie Rivière) and curious Jacques (Vincent Gauthier) wait for a flash of light said to magically appear as the sun drops behind the horizon. This fading light is briefly exchanged for a moment of genuine connection between the two, while daybreak on the other side of the world creates its own sense of resolve, with Ryunosuke Akutagawa describing the Japanese rising sun as a quieting influence over the restless conflict of sleep. To Sol LeWitt these opportunities picture the world anew. “Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach” … leading, as he says, to new experience. This new exhibition at Perrotin Tokyo, the first solo exhibition for Vermeersch in Japan, reinvigorates the artist’s previous work by applying it to new territory. Paintings move beyond the picture frame and photographic image. Which partially explains why his paintings are not really paintings at all.
Opposite – Installation view
Exhibition runs through to September 12th, 2018
Perrotin
Piramide Building, 1F, 6-6-9 Roppongi, Minato-Ku
106-0032 Tokyo
Japan
